OPPO, China’s largest smartphone company, will soon have a new headquarters space courtesy of Bjarke Ingels Group. The new OPPO R&D Headquarters will be located in the heart of Yuhang District, Hangzhou, between a natural lake, an urban center, and a 10,000-sm park. The OPPO R&D Headquarters tower, also known as O-Tower, will include 1.7 million sf of office space and 732,000 sf of retail space. It will act as a new landmark and gateway to the Future Sci-Tech City and Hangzhou itself.
O-Tower’s design translates a traditional office slab with the perfect depth for access to daylight into a cylindrical courtyard building that is compact but also provides large, contiguous floor area. The southern edge of the building will be pushed down to the ground to minimize the external surge area of the more solar exposed facade while maximizing views out from the inward facade, which is self-shaded from solar gain by the geometry of the tower. The facade will be wrapped with adaptive facade louvers that are oriented according to sun angles and building geometry to reduce solar gain by up to 52%.
A series of triple-height void spaces and interconnected terraces under the sloping O roof will provide casual and physical connectivity between floors as well as biophilic social spaces and shortcuts for all OPPO staff.
A publicly accessible courtyard will rest at the heart of O-Tower and become an urban living room for the city. The courtyard will transition from a mineral hardscape at the center into a lush, green landscape as it extends out toward the waterfront. The space will provide fresh air, retain water, and support a biodiverse public realm that connects to the daily life of the city.
The ground floor will be open with an interconnected public space that leads visitors and staff through lobbies, exhibition spaces, or out to the park. The first three floors will be reserved for public programming and include exhibition space, conference centers, a canteen, and an incubator for external workshops. On the upper floors, a dedicated OPPO canteen as well as executive and VIP lounges will overlook Hangzhou’s wetlands alongside the triple-height interconnected atria under the O-ring facade. All of the building’s floors will integrate workspaces with biophilia and social spaces.
Flexible floor plates will range from spacious and large floors suitable for R&D departments and social projects to smaller, more traditional floors for administration and executive functions.
The design for the O-Tower has been developed by BIG in collaboration with ZIAD (Local Design Institute), Co-Create Golden Technique Project Management (Client Project Managers), RBS (Structural Engineers), RFR (Façade Consultants), WSP (Traffic, MEP, VT Consultant), BPI (Lighting designer), Savills (Programming consultant), TFP (Foodservice planner), and UAD (Traffic evaluation agency).
Related Stories
Mixed-Use | Feb 22, 2016
Goettsch Partners and Lead 8 win design competition for Shanghai mixed-use complex
The designers stressed walkability and green space to attract visitors.
Mixed-Use | Feb 18, 2016
New renderings unveiled for Miami Worldcenter master plan
The ‘High Street’ retail promenade and plaza is one of the largest private master-planned projects in the U.S. and is set to break ground in early March.
Green | Feb 18, 2016
Best laid plans: Masdar City’s dreams of being the first net-zero city may have disappeared
The $22 billion experiment, to this point, has produced less than stellar results.
Mixed-Use | Jan 25, 2016
SOM unveils renderings of dual-tower Manhattan West development
The five million-sf project includes two office towers, a residential tower, retail space, and a new public square.
Mixed-Use | Jan 8, 2016
Aedas’ Shanghai project named the world’s best mixed-use architecture
Mapletree Business City Shanghai and VivoCity Shanghai took home a crown at the International Property Awards
High-rise Construction | Jan 7, 2016
Zaha Hadid designs a tower of 'stacked vases' in Melbourne
The structure is supported by sets of curved columns that taper to four different base heights.
Mixed-Use | Dec 23, 2015
'Tree-covered mountains' planned for urban Shanghai
Heatherwick Studio unveiled a 300,000-sm mixed-use project in the Chinese city’s main arts district.
Mixed-Use | Nov 16, 2015
Italian architect designs vertical forest with prefab units by BuroHappold
Cantilevered planters will host cedar trees and other plants hundreds of feet above ground.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 7, 2015
BIG designs lush, terraced mixed-use building in Sweden
Cascading glass and wooden cubes create a form similar to Northern Ireland’s Giant’s Causeway rock formation.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 1, 2015
Wiel Arets unveils twin, 558-foot mixed-use towers in Bahrain’s capital
The development, Bahrain Bay Tower, will consist of two residential towers connected “by a plinth of retail, office, parking, and public park space.”